New biomarkers for early detection of cardiotoxicity after treatment with docetaxel, doxorubicin and cyclophosphamide.

OBJECTIVE: Assessing a diverse biomarker panel (NT-proBNP, TNF-α, galectin-3, IL-6, Troponin I, ST2 and sFlt-1) to detect subclinical cardiotoxicity after treatment with anthracyclines. METHODS: Of 55 breast cancer patients biomarkers were assessed and echocardiography was performed one year after treatment with anthracyclines. RESULTS: 29.1% of patients showed abnormal biomarker levels: NT-proBNP in 18.2%, TNF-α and Galectin-3 in 7.3%. IL-6, troponin I, ST2 and sFlt-1 were normal in all patients. A correlation between left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and NT-proBNP was observed (r = -0.564, p ≤ 0.01). CONCLUSION: The evaluated biomarkers do not contribute to early detection. Future research should focus on NT-proBNP.

[Cardiotoxicity of trastuzumab of significance in the adjuvant treatment of breast cancer]. / Cardiotoxiciteit van trastuzumab van betekenis bij de adjuvante behandeling van borstkanker.

Three women aged 53, 52 and 36 years, respectively, underwent surgery for breast cancer, i.e. right-sided grade II invasive ductal carcinoma, left-sided grade III invasive ductal carcinoma, and left-sided multifocal grade III invasive ductal carcinoma, respectively. All 3 received adjuvant anthracycline-containing chemotherapy followed by trastuzumab. They developed significant cardiac dysfunction, as determined by a decrease in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), which necessitated trastuzumab discontinuation. Trastuzumab therapy was resumed in the third patient after LVEF recovery but was stopped definitively when the LVEF decreased again. Trastuzumab has been shown to improve both disease-free and overall survival in patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive breast cancer. However, symptomatic cardiac failure due to cardiomyopathy has been observed in 0.6-4.1% of patients treated with trastuzumab after adjuvant anthracycline-based chemotherapy, whereas in 5-19% of the patients the decline in cardiac function led to permanent discontinuation of trastuzumab therapy. Cardiac function should be monitored regularly during trastuzumab therapy. An LVEF less than 50% or an absolute reduction of more than 10% warrant treatment discontinuation and close follow-up. Cardiac dysfunction is usually reversible; however, the long-term consequences of LVEF reduction following trastuzumab therapy are still unknown and warrant close attention, given the relatively young age and long life expectancy of these patients.

Graft-versus-lymphoma effect of donor lymphocyte infusion in indolent lymphomas relapsed after allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

Donor lymphocyte infusions (DLI) are used to treat relapsed haematological diseases after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). We treated seven patients with DLI for indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma relapsed after SCT. In available blood and bone marrow samples, lymphoma cells were analysed by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction of t(14;18)-positive cells in follicular lymphoma, and by immunophenotyping in small lymphocytic lymphoma. Before DLI, three patients were treated with chemo- and/or radiotherapy, and one with rituximab. Evaluable responses to pre-DLI therapy were stable disease in one and partial remission (PR) in two patients. Six patients responded to DLI (complete remission (CR) in four and PR in two). After DLI, acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) occurred in 3/6 patients, classified as grade 2, whereas only limited chronic GVHD was seen (n=5). The four continuous CR are lasting for median 65+ (43-89) months. In the remaining patient, not responding to DLI, progressive disease was seen later on; chemotherapy followed by another DLI resulted in CR. In three cases, clinical responses to DLI could be substantiated by molecular or immunophenotypic analysis of lymphoma cells. We conclude that DLI is effective for treatment of indolent lymphoma relapsing after SCT.

Dynamics of circulating t(14;18)-positive cells during first-line and subsequent lines of treatment in follicular lymphoma.

In follicular lymphoma the t(14;18) might be useful as a tumor marker in predicting the quality of the response to treatment. We investigated whether analyzing numbers of t(14;18)-positive cells in peripheral blood correlated with remission status in individual patients receiving a variety of treatments. Numbers of circulating t(14;18)-positive cells were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. Disease parameters and response to treatment were related to the pre- and post-treatment numbers of circulating t(14;18)-positive cells for 53 follicular lymphoma patients. In these 53 patients, 70 treatment episodes were investigated. A content of more than 328 t(14;18)-positive cells per 75,000 cells prior to therapy correlated with the more advanced stage IV disease ( P=0.01), bone marrow involvement ( P<0.01), and overt leukemic lymphoma ( P=0.04). Therapy episodes that cleared circulation from t(14;18)-positive cells with more than one log resulted in a significantly longer progression-free survival than treatment episodes with less than one log decline (26 versus 12 months, respectively) ( P<0.01). After first-line treatment episodes, numbers of circulating t(14;18)-positive cells declined in fairly all cases, irrespective of the clinical response. However, for second or later lines of treatment, declining numbers of lymphoma cells correlated with a clinical remission, whereas increasing numbers of lymphoma cells were associated with clinically stable or progressive disease. From this, we conclude that quantitation of circulating t(14;18)-positive cells in peripheral blood is of only limited clinical significance in predicting treatment efficacy for the individual follicular lymphoma patient.